The manual holding of a bowstring at a full draw readiness state with an arrow supported between the rest on the bow handle and its nock notched on the bowstring requires great strength on the part of the archer or bowman, particularly, if held in this state for any appreciable length of time resulting in the archer becoming weary, thereby affecting the accuracy of the arrow being shot. This is particularly true when the bow is a compound bow.
To overcome this problem, it has been proposed to fixedly mount one end of a stabilizing or tension bar to the bow handle and to provide the opposite end of the bar with a trigger mechanism for releasably holding the bowstring in the fully drawn position. This relieves the archer from manually holding the bowstring while aiming the arrow.
While these proposed stabilizing bars and associated triggers have been satisfactory for their intended purpose, they have been characterized by certain disadvantages in that the bars are permanently attached to the bow handles resulting in the bows being bulky and cumbersome, and therefore not readily storable.
After considerable research and experimentation, the tension device of the present invention has been devised which is freely mounted on the bow handle and releasable therefrom after the arrow has been shot; the conventional trigger mechanism has also been improved by providing a safety catch.